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| Criterion |  Operations Kepner-Tregoe |  Engineering Fault Isolation |  Operations 5 Whys |  Engineering Hypothesis-Driven Troubleshooting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | For a disturbance that's hard to pin down, the method cleanly separates problem, cause, and decision. It reduces mixing when symptoms allow several interpretations. | In technical failures, the visible symptom often gets mixed up with the actual cause. Fault Isolation narrows the fault space and progressively reduces which part of the system is truly affected. | For a single, hard-to-explain deviation, the method exposes the causal chain behind the visible symptom. It keeps the cause open until a controllable condition emerges instead of a mere description. | When systems fail unexpectedly, spontaneous attempts often produce more noise than insight. Hypothesis-driven Troubleshooting translates symptoms into testable assumptions and makes troubleshooting learnable. |
Complexitydifferent | High | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 2-8 h | 30-180 min | 15-30 min | 30-240 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 1-6 | 2-6 | 1-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Problem Analysis, Decision Analysis, Risk Plan | Fault Isolation Map, Test Log, Excluded Hypotheses, Narrowed Fault Area | Root cause notes, Countermeasures | Hypothesis Log, Test Plan, Evidence Notes, Diagnosis Summary |
Tagsno overlap | Problem solvingRoot causeDecisionOperations | TroubleshootingDiagnosisEngineering | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving | TroubleshootingProblem solvingDiagnosis |